Fault
by Aiden Ravelle
Summary: James is sick. Jessie blames herself. Rocketshipping.


"There's an outbreak of Malaria, all different strains, being transferred by mosquitos. They can infect humans and Pokémon so be sure to carry mosquito spray with you and keep it on at all times. If you think someone has been infected, please bring them to the hospital as soon as possible!" Officer Jenny said on the news. The team was in a town and was standing outside of a television shop, half watching the television and half worrying about where they would eat next.

"Jessie, I'm hungry," James whined.

"Shut up! I'm thinking of a plan," Jessie screeched back. Meowth was just paying attention to the television and not worrying about the plans. "Come on," Jessie told them.

They walked around the shop and behind a strip mall. There were a few restaurants and one had a door open in the back, so they decided to check it out. "Stay here," Jessie whispered as she snuck in the back door. After a minute or so, she ran out and yelled, "Let's go!"

They ran down to the end of the strip mall. They then found some bushes to hide in. Jessie pulled out a whole loaf of bread and a few cans. The cans had various fruits and veggies in them. "This is more food than we've had in months!" Meowth said with his accent.

"Maybe we should save some of them so they last longer and we have food for a while," James commented.

"Fine, lets save the cans because they will last longer anyway," Jessie replied as they started digging into the loaf of bread. They hadn't run into the twerps today, so they had no idea where they could find Pikachu. The day wore on and it was time for bed. Meowth got out the mosquito spray and sprayed himself first. He handed it to James who went to shake up the can, but Jessie grabbed the spray from his hands, "Ladies first."

After a minute of over spraying herself she said, "Oops."

"Oops what, Jessie?" James said looking up.

"We ran out of spray. You should be fine though, with us near you. We should get some more tomorrow though."

They got wrapped up in their sleeping bags and went to sleep. A few hours later James woke up to find himself scratching a few spots on his body. He looked at them and found mosquito bites. He couldn't stop itching them so he couldn't get back to sleep. He got up and got their fire started again. When the sun rose and he could see around him, he went and got a special berry. This kind of berry was poisonous to eat but if you rub it on a mosquito bite it stops itching. He got it to stop itching, and when the others woke up they went about their day.

They went for a month and a half after that with all of their plans destroyed by the twerps, and the boss was mad at them as usual because they hadn't caught or stolen any good Pokémon. They ran out of the cans of food a week and a half after stealing them. They hadn't been able to steal very much food or many supplies either so they were in even worse moods than usual.

"Get up," Jessie yelled at James, "We are ready to go."

James took a while to get himself up. He was freezing, dizzy and nauseous. He thought he must be coming down with a flu, but they had a big plan to carry out today so he had to get through it or else everyone, the boss, Jessie and Meowth would be disappointed in him if he messed this up.

He stayed up long enough to carry out his part of the plan, but unfortunately, the twerps ruined everything again.

When Jessie found her way back to camp, she found James asleep in his sleeping bag. She figured he just gave up on the day and went to bed early. She and Meowth stayed up making more plans of how to steal Pikachu. They decided they needed to get food first. They had been gathering berries lately, but there weren't many left around their camp. They needed to move anyway because the twerp was moving to a new city and they needed to go too if they were going to get Pikachu. They should have a fresh supply of berries at the new site.

Meowth and Jessie went to sleep and got up in the morning before James. "Jimmy, it's time to get up," Meowth said shaking James' arm. He noticed how hot James felt but didn't think more about it. James took a minute or two, but he eventually got up. He looked pale and sickly, but Jessie and Meowth did not notice because they were too interested in moving. They had been planning on hiking, but they remembered the balloon, so they got it up and running and floated into the sky.

Because he had nothing in his stomach, James had nothing to throw up, so he had been dry heaving all day. However, no one had been close enough to notice until they were up in the balloon.

"Are you's ok?" Meowth asked him.

"Yeah, I think I just have a slight flu."

"We can stop and get you medicine somewhere, we can't carry out plans if you are too weak to work," Jessie said, finally stopping to notice how bad James looked. She cared about him, he's her best friend, but she always focused on work before anything else so she rarely noticed when James acted different.

"I'll be fine, don't worry about me," James replied. He knew they had too many other things to worry about. Jessie had been making plans like crazy lately, so he knew she would need to focus on those more than him. He hated to admit it, even to himself, but there were times when he wished that his parents would accept that he didn't love Jessibelle, and would give him his inheritance. Then, he could take care of Jessie and Meowth and they would no longer have to focus on stealing and would have time to focus on other things… like maybe each other. However, that was not going to happen anytime soon so he pushed the thought out of his head.

By the time they got to the new site and got everything set up, James didn't have enough energy to help them gather berries. Meowth brought some to James, but soon after eating them they came back up. James didn't have the energy to even sit up, so he ended up puking in his sleeping bag and getting it all over himself. He soon passed out.

"Jessie, can you please help me out?" Meowth asked, trying to pull James up to clean him off.

"In a minute, I'm a little busy, and he'll probably throw up on himself again," Jessie said looking at her phone. She was trying to make it seem like she didn't really care, but she was looking up doctors in the area to take James to. She didn't want to admit it, but she cares more about him than she shows.

"James? James!? Jessie, get over here, something's wrong!" Meowth screamed.

Jessie turned around to see James shaking. "James?! James! Meowth, I think he's having a seizure, we need to get him to a hospital! Let's get him up and we can carry him!"

"Jessie, we can't carry him, call an ambulance," Meowth reminded her.

After calling an ambulance, Jessie got a rag and sat down by James. His body had calmed down, but he was still unconscious. She started rubbing his forehead with the rag, trying to cool him down, "Oh James, please wake up."

Once the ambulance arrived James was carted off and carried away. There was not enough room in the ambulance for Jessie and Meowth, so as soon as the ambulance drove off, Jessie hurriedly packed up their stuff and then started running for the hospital. Meowth soon followed behind.

"I wonder what she is up to," Brock commented as Jessie and Meowth ran past the group.

Once they arrived, they went to the front desk and asked where James was. They were sent back to his room, only to find that he was still unconscious. The nurses had cleaned him up and put him in hospital robes. After a little while, a doctor came in. He told Jessie that the symptoms could mean a lot of different things and they would have to run a lot more tests.

The next day, after he had still not regained consciousness, the doctor had decided that James was in a coma. He told the pair that it could be a few days to a few months or even longer for James to wake up, if he ever did again.

A few more days passed with Jessie almost always at James' side. A day or so ago she had gone back to their camping spot and brought what she could to the hospital. She, and Meowth, had decided they would stay on the couch in the hospital room until James woke up or they came up with a better plan. Early in the morning, the doctor came in and woke Jessie up to tell her what the test results had shown.

"It seems that James contracted Malaria. It is passed through contact with mosquitos, so anytime he was outside without bug spray, he could have been bitten, whether he realized it or not. Some people barely have symptoms. In rare cases, such as James, it can have a lot more serious consequences such as a coma. There are not many treatments, so we basically have to just wait and see if he wakes up. He might not ever wake up though. I don't know how close you and him were, and I am not trying to say give up hope, but you should try to move on with your life, try to get back to normal, ok?" The doctor said before he walked out of the door.

Jessie burst into tears, remembering the day she used all the bug spray. She knew that that was the night he got bit, and she blamed herself. Meowth had woken up halfway through what the doctor said and had moved closer to Jessie to comfort her.

"It's all my fault," Jessie sobbed.

"Why's you say that Jess?" Meowth asked in response.

"The day I used the bug spray. He must have gotten bit then."

"He could have been bitten any day."

"Well even so, I should have paid more attention to him. Making sure he was eating more, making sure he had bug spray on, making sure he was ok," she said slowly through sobs.

"He wouldn't want you to think like that Jess. He cares about you and wouldn't want you blaming yourself. Got it?"

Jessie shrugged in return. The next few days she sunk into a deep depression, barely eating, barely sleeping, just staring at James.

Meowth was upset, but had tried to get out of the room once and a while. He had called James' parents and told them what happened. They came and visited, but it really didn't end well. His mom started screaming at Jessie, calling her a selfish bitch, blaming her for what happened, and Jessie didn't even fight back. She believed it anyway, so why would she argue? However things turned violent after Jessie did not respond to them. His mom went into a rage and started beating on Jessie. She ended up getting a black eye and a bloody nose before security escorted his parents away.

A few days after that incident, Meowth tried talking to Jessie. "Maybe we should try to get back to work," he suggested.

Jessie shrugged in response.

"Jess, you can't just sit here and watch him all day. That won't make things get back to normal. You and I can plan without him, and when he finally wakes up, we will have caught Pikachu and a ton of other Pokémon for the boss. Maybe we'll even be rich."

"What if he doesn't wake up?" Jessie asked without taking her eyes off James.

"He will Jess, you just have to believe. It can take a while for someone's body to get back to normal after something like this."

She shrugged again.

"What is your problem?" Meowth got up in Jessie's face, "This isn't like you. You generally go about your day without caring to check on him, you are like our leader, you need to be here to lead, you need to take back your life and get on with it, because that is what he would want."

Jessie started crying some more. After a few minutes she sobbed, "I killed him… I love him and I killed him."

After sitting in silence another minute or so, Meowth replied, "He's not dead, and what happened isn't your fault. If you love him, why did you never tell him?"

"Work had to come first, and I can be rough, I didn't think he'd like someone like me, so I never told him how I felt. I just kept it hidden," Jessie said in contemplation.

"Jessie, I think he loved you too, you just never noticed."

Jessie went back to staring at James. A few more days passed and Jessie was asleep with her arm and head resting on James' bed. Meowth was out taking a walk to get some fresh air.

Jessie felt a hand rubbing her hair and she thought she was dreaming. She slowly woke up and looked up and James was sitting there smiling down at her.

"James! Am I dreaming?"

"No, you're not. I might be though. I am in a hospital, and I feel like I heard you and Meowth talking a few times, but those conversations might have been a dream."

Jessie got up and hugged James as tightly as she could.  
"You've been out about a month. You got malaria from a mosquito. We weren't sure if you would ever wake up."

"Did you do anything while I was out?"

Jessie was afraid to tell him that she hadn't left his room at all, unsure of his reaction, however, Meowth came into the room just in time to spare her.

"James!" Meowth exclaimed seeing him sitting up and seeing the joy coming back to Jessie. Meowth jumped onto the bed and hugged James.

"Meowth! Has Jessie been taking care of you?"

Jessie and Meowth looked at each other, knowing full well that Jessie was the one being taken care of by Meowth.

"Yeah, she's been taking good care of me and your pokemon!" Meowth replied.

"Thanks Jessie," James said sincerely.

Jessie sighed, she could handle the group lying to anyone except each other, "Meowth stop lying."

She turned to James, "I haven't taken care of anything or anyone. Meowth took care of your pokemon, my pokemon, himself, and me," Jessie looked away, "I kind of shut down, not sure what to do in life without you."

"Oh Jessie…" James replied, trying to figure out what to say next.

Not having the courage to look him in the face, or to hear what he had to reply to her just saying she pretty much can't live without him, she ran out the door and started to cry. She hadn't been the crying type a month ago, but once this happened, her life, and so many things about her, changed.

James tried to get up to follow her, but between being attached to IV's and not having walked in a month so his legs were weak, he collapsed on the floor.

"JESSIE!" James screamed after her.

After a minute or two sitting on the floor, Meowth helped James stand up. "She loves you, you know. She doesn't think you could love her back, and she is too afraid of getting hurt but she'll come around."

"So you and her talking about her loving me wasn't a dream? I remember her saying she blames herself for what happened to me. Was that real too?"

"Yea James. She thought it was her fault and that she'd gotten you killed."

"Oh Jessie… What should I do Meowth?"

"I would says, go to her. Tells her how you feel and assure her it isn't her fault."

The hospital would not let James out for a few more days to make sure he was strong enough to walk after his muscles not being used for so long. Meowth told James everything that happened while he was in the coma. Jessie didn't come back after she had run out of his room crying. Meowth had tried to go find her a few times but he was unsuccessful.

"I get out today, so we can go search for her ourselves. We'll do better with two searching than just one. Plus we can have Jessie's pokemon help."

Jessie had forgotten her pokeballs when she left, so wherever she was, they knew she was unprotected.

Right before he left the hospital, James received a letter. It was from Giovanni and it read, "James and Meowth,

Your team has failed more times than I can count. Even when one of you can catch or steal a pokemon, it is weaker than anything that other teams have given me. As a result, I am disbanding your team. And to prove how unforgiving I am and to scare other teams into better performance, I am killing your last teammate. If I ever see your faces again, you will be killed on site.

Giovanni"

James had been standing up, but he fell back down onto the chair next to him.

"What is it James?" Meowth read the letter and sat down as well, "we need to go get her."

"What if we are too late?"

"We have to try James. Don't you want to save her?"

James didn't even reply, he just started running out of the hospital. Once Meowth figured out what James was doing, he helped. They got the balloon up and running and they set off for Team Rocket's headquarters.

"I hope we can save her. I don't know if I am strong enough for this, but if I can get you and Jessie safe, I will be happy."

"We are a team, all three of us need to be safe."

"We'll try Meowth."

Once they saw the building, they landed far enough away that the balloon would be hidden. Meowth went into the building and acted as a regular non-talking Meowth, because there were enough of them there that he could blend in. He finally found out that Jessie was being held in a room downstairs. He snuck down there and saw her through the window of the door. The door was locked, but there was just enough light to see her lying on the ground. He could tell she was still breathing though, which was a good sign.

Meowth snuck back out and let James knew that she was still alive. They waited until night time and they snuck back in. There were a lot less people to sneak past at night. They ended up getting downstairs and getting the room unlocked.

"Jessie?" James turned the light on. Jessie was covered in bruises, she looked terrible.  
After kneeling next to her, he touched her shoulder, "Jess?"

"James?" She questioned, slowly opening her eyes.

"Yea Jess. We need to get you out of here."

After James helped Jessie stand up, they worked on getting out of the building. They got almost out the door when they were spotted. Guards with guns started chasing them and unfortunately James tripped. Jessie stopped to help him up, but stopped short, feeling a pinch in her side. She looked down and realized she had been shot. James got up and looked at Jessie when he noticed the red starting to stain her shirt. In only a matter of seconds James scooped Jessie up into his arms and then ran them out the door. Luckily they got to the balloon before any of the guards, and once they were up in the air, the guards quit shooting.

"Are you ok James?" Jessie asked.

James started laughing.

"What?" Jessie asked annoyed.

"You just got shot, you were being held captive, and the last time I saw you, you ran out of my hospital room crying, and you are asking me if I am ok?" James chuckled.

"You were really sick and in the hospital. You shouldn't be running like that, let alone carrying me."

"It doesn't matter. Are you ok? We'll go take you to the hospital and get you fixed up. I'm sorry you got shot because of me."

"Shot because of you? It wasn't your fault. It's not that bad of a wound anyway. Plus, I don't care about me, as long as you are ok. It's all my fault you got sick." Jessie confessed.

"How was it your fault?"

"I used all the bug spray."

"Jessie," James lifted his hand to her face, "I would have given you the can once I realized how little there was in it. Anyway, if I hadn't tripped you wouldn't have stopped to help me up."

Meowth stepped into the conversation. He had been quiet before that so Jessie and James forgot that he was even there, "Stop putting fault on yourselves. What happened was no one's fault. We are all going to be ok, once we get Jessie to the hospital. Now stop blaming yourselves because I can't deal with another month of taking care of depressed people."

Jessie put her face down, "Sorry Meowth… Thank you."

Meowth was slightly taken aback by Jessie saying thanks, but he wasn't as surprised as he would have been a month ago when she was just strictly focused on work.

"Jessie?" James whispered, "I love you."

Jessie put her hand on his, "I love you too."

They caught up a bit more. James found out that Jessie had caught an oshawott, but it was pretty weak which is why he snapped. Jessie had been in that room for 2 and a half days without food and very little water. Giovanni had his guards beat her once a day and he figured she would die by the beatings or by the starving, he just told her it would be painful.

Jessie found out about the letter and his last couple days in the hospital. She felt bad about him collapsing trying to run after her, but he was glad he gained some strength back. She also found out about what he had heard during his coma.

After their conversation they stood up to see how far they had drifted. Meowth had stayed quiet most of the time and was trying to keep the balloon in the right direction.

With the hospital in sight and the sun setting behind them even though things were a lot different, they knew things were going to be getting better.

"We might not be a team rocket team anymore, but we are still a team and we will stick together no matter what," Jessie said.

James reached out for Jessie's hand, "Yeah, we will always be together."

"Meowth, that's right!" Meowth chimed in.


End file.
